Great session there Zach and it sounds you're loving the team work. Still, with the warm up and stretching you're in there for 3 and a half hours
It's good that you're getting useful advice already (like you look natural with a conventional deadlift)
I've never seen those wall squats before --- it looks hard to keep balance but that looks like a great way to improve your flexibility and also grind in good spine positioning during the squat. I'll be giving them a try --- and expect to be falling flat on my @rse

lmao luckily it wasn't a severe sprain and since deadlifts your feet aren't moving around it didn't really have any effect on my ankle. Yeah the team work is fuking awesome and the environment you get when 10 people are yelling at you while your deadlifting is definitely on a different level. Can't wait to get some squat sessions and bench sessions in with the team here soon enough...

And please report back with how the wall squats went for you, I fully expect video

Originally Posted by AirForceV

Well i thought sumo deads were for females so i HOPE conventinal deads are your one and only :-) :-) good work beating them. Your extra work will pay off loads. Keep it up man!

lol tell that to my coach who pulls sumo:

brb 900 for nearly a double
brb tearing his glute/adductor tie-in squatting 782 at the meet I was at and still finishing the meet with bench and deadlifts after

When I started lifting in July 2010 I weighed 210 morning weight. Cut down to 183lbs over the next year, and have slowly been bulking since then. Woke up at 210lbs for the first time since I started lifting which inspired me to put together this photo montage:

lol its from having gyno man. It started when I was around 14 and my pediatrician diagnosed it as gyno resulting from puberty and hormonal changes, but that it should disappear when I finish puberty around 18-20. Never did though, feelsbadman. I finally met with an endocrinologist this summer and he diagnosed me as having "persistent gynecomastia of puberty." He basically said all the medications weren't really worth it because most of them only have less than a 50% success rate and horrible side effects, and that cosmetic surgery was really the only way to 100% get rid of it. ATM it still bothers me a lot but it is much less apparent with a lower BF% and am not willing to drop thousands of dollars and put my lifting career on hold to deal with it since you can't lift post surgery for like months.

Didn't go out last night so I decided to get up and hit the gym before work today. Entire back was/is extremely sore from yesterdays session.

I was kinda dreading going to 24 today because I figured it would be swamped with resolutioners, but to my pleasant surprise it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Got a bench right off the bat so all was good in my book. I thought I was gonna see some outlandish chit, but the most lulzy thing I saw was a woman probably in her late 40's on the adductor machine moaning/groaning hella loudly. I was like is this real life...

I'm already spoiled by the benchpresses @ EPC and hate the ones @ 24. The ones @ EPC have this cool cushioning where you can really sink your traps into it and not really slide around whereas @ 24 after your first rep you always lose most of your upper back tightness because you just slide on the smooth surface. 280 sets felt harder than they should have an my butt was definitely coming up a tiny bit on a lot of the sets. Got it done but wasn't to satisfied with it. I wonder if going from benching 3x a week on Sheiko to 2x a week now is making me weaker. Probably just in my head lol.

lmao luckily it wasn't a severe sprain and since deadlifts your feet aren't moving around it didn't really have any effect on my ankle. Yeah the team work is fuking awesome and the environment you get when 10 people are yelling at you while your deadlifting is definitely on a different level. Can't wait to get some squat sessions and bench sessions in with the team here soon enough...

It sounds great --- shifting everything into high gear

Originally Posted by adamsz

And please report back with how the wall squats went for you, I fully expect video

You just want to see the fail as I fall on my @rse I'd have to post it somewhere where you wouldn't see it ...like my log

Originally Posted by adamsz

When I started lifting in July 2010 I weighed 210 morning weight. Cut down to 183lbs over the next year, and have slowly been bulking since then. Woke up at 210lbs for the first time since I started lifting which inspired me to put together this photo montage:

You had a lot of quality muscle before you started lifting, especially shoulders and back ---- was that from swimming?
There's a big difference between those two pics. Your shoulders, traps and lats are bigger, but the biggest difference is the thickness now through your spinal erectors and the way your legs have blown up! Mirin' those lifting stats now!

Didn't go out last night so I decided to get up and hit the gym before work today. Entire back was/is extremely sore from yesterdays session.

I was kinda dreading going to 24 today because I figured it would be swamped with resolutioners, but to my pleasant surprise it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. Got a bench right off the bat so all was good in my book. I thought I was gonna see some outlandish chit, but the most lulzy thing I saw was a woman probably in her late 40's on the adductor machine moaning/groaning hella loudly. I was like is this real life...

I'm already spoiled by the benchpresses @ EPC and hate the ones @ 24. The ones @ EPC have this cool cushioning where you can really sink your traps into it and not really slide around whereas @ 24 after your first rep you always lose most of your upper back tightness because you just slide on the smooth surface. 280 sets felt harder than they should have an my butt was definitely coming up a tiny bit on a lot of the sets. Got it done but wasn't to satisfied with it. I wonder if going from benching 3x a week on Sheiko to 2x a week now is making me weaker. Probably just in my head lol.

Looked like a great lifting session --- 5 x 3 x 280 paused is hyooge. I doubt that dropping from 3 to 2 benching sessions will have weakened you, so yeah.....it's all in your head

wouldn't sweat the gyno man. your B2B just crushes it anyway! I'm excited to see how far you push yourself this year. Seem to be in the right PL groove right now. Sky's the limit (unless you're trying to catch Corey, lol)

no training post surgery for months? wut. I heard it's like 2 weeks tops.. coming from some guys who had the glands removed because they run a ton of tech lol. why not run some clomid/nolva and letro?

I've seen that video before pretty impressive. But I still don't like sumo deads lol.

I typed out a long ass response to this and my b!tch ass computer refreshed the page for no reason and it lost it... son of a b!tch.

The doc told me that you couldn't lift for months after, I assume at least for upperbody. I dunno I'm not a doctor, just what he said. As for letro I remember him saying that not everyone has success with it and that it can have horrible side effects and that the risk ratio was pretty damn high. Clomid/nolva he didn't mention and I don't really know anything about, but I wouldn't wanna take anything that a doctor doesn't recommend.

Either way, it's just not my top priority right now. Maybe down the road if I get back into bodybuilding and want to compete and it ruins my chances of placing decently I would consider revisiting the options, but right now I don't care too much.

Originally Posted by The Shoeless Wonder

all that chest and bench should get rid of the gyno

lulz

Originally Posted by fittofattofit

It sounds great --- shifting everything into high gear

You just want to see the fail as I fall on my @rse I'd have to post it somewhere where you wouldn't see it ...like my log

Hahaha it would be a bit entertaining And I dunno what your talking about, believe it or not I still lurk your log all the time and read probably 80% of the sessions, just don't post too much because I don't do the whole bodybuilder thing anymore. When I see stuff that's more PL related like DL sessions and stuff I usually try and comment though. Sorry I don't have as good of feedback to give as you

You had a lot of quality muscle before you started lifting, especially shoulders and back ---- was that from swimming?
There's a big difference between those two pics. Your shoulders, traps and lats are bigger, but the biggest difference is the thickness now through your spinal erectors and the way your legs have blown up! Mirin' those lifting stats now!

I think the muscle that I had in July 2010 was the result of sporadically lifting during my junior and senior years of college. I would basically only do chest exercises but it was never consistent and wasn't on any real program. That's why I say I didn't start seriously lifting until July 2010.

Yeah I think the legs are probably the most noticeable difference. Before I just had fat legs, now I have fat muscle legs

Looked like a great lifting session --- 5 x 3 x 280 paused is hyooge. I doubt that dropping from 3 to 2 benching sessions will have weakened you, so yeah.....it's all in your head

in bold

Originally Posted by nwskier

dam dude, helluva difference in 2 years!!! awesome job.

wouldn't sweat the gyno man. your B2B just crushes it anyway! I'm excited to see how far you push yourself this year. Seem to be in the right PL groove right now. Sky's the limit (unless you're trying to catch Corey, lol)

Thanks Tim, wouldn't have gotten into the whole journal thing if it wasn't for you bud.

B2B = back double bicep??? And I'll catch up to Corey someday... someday...

Kind of a crappy session overall. I went in with no game plan at all other than I wanted to do 5 sets of 3 on squats. After that I kinda just wondered around like "hmm what should I do next?" and ended up wasting a lot of time. Then near the end of the session another guy came in and he was pretty chatty so that ate up a lot of time as well.

Still trying to get used to the 55lb squat bar that I've been using the last few weeks. It's thicker than a normal gym bar so it's harder for me to get it into the "groove" of my back between my traps and lats or whatever muscles it is, and it's longer overall so the weight stabilization feels a bit different.

Ending up skipping all my post-workout stretching/rolling/physio because I had a chiro appointment at 5 and I needed to go grocery shopping and wanted to BBQ my week's worth of meat before going to the appointment since it gets dark at like 5 now. Made a pretty decent batch of BBQ: 4lbs chicken breast, couple pounds Bulgogi and Hawaiian style short ribs, pound of pork loin, and a ton of brussle sprouts with a bunch of seasonings on them.

Chiropractor

Not sure if I mentioned this in the last journal but I've been seeing a chiropractor a little bit the over the last couple months. I had no idea what to expect going in and thought I would be getting my spine aligned and graston/ART and chit like that, but it turned out to be completely different.

The first session he put me through a ton of different mobility/flexibility/muscular tests. Overall he was pretty impressed with my results and said I was more mobile/flexible than the majority of his clients. One major thing we discovered though was that my glutes are really weak compared to the rest of my posterior chain, and they have trouble firing when they're supposed to. He's given me a bunch of stretching/mobility exercises to work on which I've been trying to keep up with which has helped some in the gym with my lifts also helped with my lower back pain.

Today we tried out some various exercises for my glutes to try and see what would get them to fire correctly. For a couple of them like split squats holding a kettlebell my quads/hamstrings would do the majority of the work and it was hard to get the glutes to kick in. After trying a few different ones without a lot of success we did some barbell hip thrusters (with no weight) and that definitely got the glutes burning. No suprise there lol...

Overall it feels a lot more like physical therapy (similar to the PT I used to do back in high school for back pain) than what I imagined a chiropractor session would be like. He said to check back in a 4-6 weeks but I don't know if I will because it's like $50 for a 30 minute session, kinda spendy for me.

no more stretching/physio work/rolling because I was just too damn gassed

Thoughts

Went in thinking I was going to do leg press, but I got inspired to do some wide-stance box squats for no apparent reason lol. After warming up I thought I'd like to try and do 5 sets of 10 with about 50% of my 1RM like the 5/3/1 Boring But Big template calls for, but after the 3rd set I was just too gassed. Glutes and lowerback were just done for. The weight definitely felt pretty light, but my posterior chain was just smoked.

Since starting to see the chiro I think I've become more conscious of how my body reacts to certain lifts. For example I was planning on doing 4 sets of the prone DB shrugs but after the first 2 sets I noticed my neck didn't feel too great from them, something I would always ignore in the past and just keep doing. I decided I need to listen to my body more and if a lift feels like it's compromising my spinal integrity it's probably best to not do it.

Decided to give the the KB 1-legged DL's a try because I've seen one of the strongman at EPC doing them. They were surprisingly really hard. They require a ton of balance which I am apparently lacking in lol. They stretched out the hamstring great and actually I felt them in my glutes a lot. Gonna probably keep playing around with them.

I realized that doing sled work is WAY harder at 24 Hour Fitness than it is at EPC. This is because at 24 the ground is like those mats they lay down for lifting whereas at EPC the sled section is basically on cement so there's next to no friction like there is on the matts. Doing half the amount of weight at 24 feels like the same amount of work as twice the weight at EPC. I was donezo after 10 sets of sprints, if you can even call them that lmao. More like like prowler jogs. That feel when you collapse on the floor afterwards and you feel like your heart is going to jump out of your chest...

Thanks Tim, wouldn't have gotten into the whole journal thing if it wasn't for you bud.

B2B = back double bicep??? And I'll catch up to Corey someday... someday...

hell yeah! i've grown from your support as well. appreciate the motivation and feedback- that's what is great about this community (focus, determination, smarts, strength, motivation)

yeah back double bicep - with the small waist and huge delts, you more than make up for chest size/def with your back double bi. it's pretty dam impressive, IMO (nh)

as for $50 for chiro, that's a drop in the bucket. I paid $70 for a quality 60-min deep tissue massage the other day. Deep tissue massage work is super key (IMO) and has such great benefits- but just like a chiro- has to be someone that knows and understands athletes and physiology/mechanics/sports, etc... gotta be a right fit

The side effects of letro aren't that insane... not sure what kind of pipe dream your doc was spewing at you. It's worth whatever "risk". You might feel sick or depressed for a day or two or some **** but that's basically it... Would look around for gyno fixes on your own. Specially if the gland hasn't actually grown and it's just "puffy"

I always appreciate your comments --- they are always insightful or helpful, and I learn a lot from reading your log
Nice job on the squatting --- it's pretty hard work to do those 325 x 5 x 3 in the morning and then go to the Box squats in the afternoon. 10 rep sets of deep box squats would 'fry the PC'

A few other things:
With the Gyno ..... you know I agree with Corey. I think you should try medical therapy first. Letro/Arimidex etc are worth a try and the side effects are minimal. Docs all have their own prejudices and a lot don't keep up with practice or tailor their therapies for individuals. I sent you that link before. If you can avoid surgery you should
With the chiro ..... I'm always suspicious of Chiros because of this 'all of your ailments are related to the spine' cr@p that the new age chiros espouse. It sounds like you've got a real good one who actually sticks to the physical/musculo-skeletal side of things. You have got great flexibility in your hips and lower back --- really better than most vids I see. Do you get pain in your thoracic spine at all and do you think it's related to your kyphoscoliosis?
And $50 for a half hour with a physio or chiro is pretty cheap if you are going to get good advice and support
With the glutes ..... great job with the single leg KB deads -- that's one of the things my PT has had me doing to strengthen the glutes, along with a lot of other single leg work ---- it really forces you to stabilise the hips and shows up any imbalances between the glutes. The other single leg work is doing pistol squats ---- with TRX or a rail for support initially, and weighted step ups to a high box --- they all really force you to activate your glutes for stability

Your floor press looked spot on. Nice control, nice decent, good pause. Some might say to put your legs out flat, but I keep em tucked up like you do. Just make sure youre still setting your shoulders like you would on a regular bench, and keep a slight arch in your lower back. It looks like youre doing both of those things, so GJ.

Amazing progress in 2 years. Your lifts have blown up. And I see the biggest difference in how wide your back is, and how much bigger your thighs are now.

Thanks Joey! Time + dedication = results And it's kinda funny, I didn't even realize how much my legs had really grown until I made that comparison picture! Feelsgoodman.

Originally Posted by nwskier

hell yeah! i've grown from your support as well. appreciate the motivation and feedback- that's what is great about this community (focus, determination, smarts, strength, motivation)

yeah back double bicep - with the small waist and huge delts, you more than make up for chest size/def with your back double bi. it's pretty dam impressive, IMO (nh)

as for $50 for chiro, that's a drop in the bucket. I paid $70 for a quality 60-min deep tissue massage the other day. Deep tissue massage work is super key (IMO) and has such great benefits- but just like a chiro- has to be someone that knows and understands athletes and physiology/mechanics/sports, etc... gotta be a right fit

Thanks Tim. Yeah I think from now on I'm either going to start spending some of my cash on some massage or maybe go back to my old physical therapist from high school. I'm not sure how much that PT was because my insurance used to cover it back in the day, but it would be like a half hour of the PT working on my back and a half hour of doing a bunch of exercises/stretches at the gym they had at their facility. While I've learned a great deal from the chiropractor I've seen these last 3 sessions, I feel like now that he has exposed what needs to be worked on I probably don't need to use his specific services anymore.

Originally Posted by AirForceV

The side effects of letro aren't that insane... not sure what kind of pipe dream your doc was spewing at you. It's worth whatever "risk". You might feel sick or depressed for a day or two or some **** but that's basically it... Would look around for gyno fixes on your own. Specially if the gland hasn't actually grown and it's just "puffy"

Like I said, it's not my biggest priority ATM. Maybe later down the road I'll revisit the issue.

Originally Posted by fittofattofit

I always appreciate your comments --- they are always insightful or helpful, and I learn a lot from reading your log
Nice job on the squatting --- it's pretty hard work to do those 325 x 5 x 3 in the morning and then go to the Box squats in the afternoon. 10 rep sets of deep box squats would 'fry the PC'

A few other things:
With the Gyno ..... you know I agree with Corey. I think you should try medical therapy first. Letro/Arimidex etc are worth a try and the side effects are minimal. Docs all have their own prejudices and a lot don't keep up with practice or tailor their therapies for individuals. I sent you that link before. If you can avoid surgery you should
With the chiro ..... I'm always suspicious of Chiros because of this 'all of your ailments are related to the spine' cr@p that the new age chiros espouse. It sounds like you've got a real good one who actually sticks to the physical/musculo-skeletal side of things. You have got great flexibility in your hips and lower back --- really better than most vids I see. Do you get pain in your thoracic spine at all and do you think it's related to your kyphoscoliosis?
And $50 for a half hour with a physio or chiro is pretty cheap if you are going to get good advice and support
With the glutes ..... great job with the single leg KB deads -- that's one of the things my PT has had me doing to strengthen the glutes, along with a lot of other single leg work ---- it really forces you to stabilise the hips and shows up any imbalances between the glutes. The other single leg work is doing pistol squats ---- with TRX or a rail for support initially, and weighted step ups to a high box --- they all really force you to activate your glutes for stability

Thanks Fit, and likewise. Yeah 2 squat sessions in one day = major PC DOMS I get a decent amount of lower back pain as related to my kyphosis and poor posture, but I feel like doing the exercises the chiro has given me has been helping with it for sure. I think a lot of the exercises that help me to "plug my hips into my spine" better are working well. One example would be lying partial deadbugs. And single leg work is hard as fuk!! Might try some of those TRX pistol squats. I can do 1-legged pistol squats for a few reps unassisted, but would probably benefit from doing some higher rep ones with assistance like a TRX rope.

Originally Posted by dan_g_28

Hey brotha, Ill hop in here for the question in my log.

Your floor press looked spot on. Nice control, nice decent, good pause. Some might say to put your legs out flat, but I keep em tucked up like you do. Just make sure youre still setting your shoulders like you would on a regular bench, and keep a slight arch in your lower back. It looks like youre doing both of those things, so GJ.

Thanks for taking the time to look at it Dan! I appreciate that man. Awesome to hear you think it looks pretty good, guess I'll keep doing them that way.

Went straight to EPC after a double shift. I guess during that time on Thursdays the Cycling team does their practice. It was funny I walked in and there's like 20 people on racing bikes set on this little track thing and they're all doing this crazy stimulated race workout, and I was the only one lifting weights, was kinda lulzy.

I've noticed that since working out at EPC I've kinda become dependent on getting a hand off on bench sets. When I lifted at 24 I never asked for hand offs unless I was going for a 1RM, but since starting at EPC I've asked for handoffs on basically all of my work sets. I didn't this session and noticed I lost a lot of my upperback tightness.

I think I figured out why ring dips are so fuking hard for me. At EPC they're suspended from the ceiling, which is probably like 12 feet high, so when you're doing the reps you have like 8 feet or so if rope/line feeding up to the ceiling, and as a result I think it's much hard to get stable because there's a lot more distance creating more swinging. This is contrast to what I see bombdonald doing in his vids where his rings are suspended from his door panel, so I suspect the shorter distance of the rings being suspended makes it much easier to be stable.

Something I've noticed on deadlift days at EPC is that they all tend to become a max effort day. Worked up to 455 for a single, which is 90% of my 1RM, and the form broke down quite a bit. Chris noticed this trend and told us that for the conventional pullers, we really should only be maxing out like once every 3 months because it's so hard on the CNS. I guess a few of us need to cool it with the test-induced man-up sessions where we're always trying to go balls-to-the-wall go-for-broke pulling lol. Chris and Rudy both noticed some weak points on my pulls where my hips arn't firing enough, and as a result Chris prescribed that I start doing the banded dimmel deadlifts, high-reps, for a few sets after my regular DL worksets. After doing a few sets of those my glutes were absolutely fried.

Another one of the coaches, Bob, pulled a 655 or so PR today (he pulls sumo). It went up insanely fast, so he decided to give 700 a shot and missed it about half way up. He's a pretty incredible athlete - 220 lean, but strong as all hell (at least on DL's - I haven't lifted with him otherwise yet). Definitely a good role model.

Those floor presses looked excellent Zack --- a great exercise and should be harder after doing the CGBPs first. BTW your calves are looking huge in that vid

You'll have to get some vids of your 'Dimmel' deadlifts --- I'll be interested in seeing how you do these. It's good that the guys at EPC picked up on the glute firing .... it confirms the chiro's observations and means that your training and rehab is on track to get the glutes firing properly. It's a bit scary thinking that you've got 'issues' with your deadlifts and can still pull 500

Those floor presses looked excellent Zack --- a great exercise and should be harder after doing the CGBPs first. BTW your calves are looking huge in that vid

You'll have to get some vids of your 'Dimmel' deadlifts --- I'll be interested in seeing how you do these. It's good that the guys at EPC picked up on the glute firing .... it confirms the chiro's observations and means that your training and rehab is on track to get the glutes firing properly. It's a bit scary thinking that you've got 'issues' with your deadlifts and can still pull 500

I'll try and get a vid of the dimmel deads next week. And no matter how advanced a lifter is, there's always going to be those 'issues.' There's always something that could be done better, and always better form to strive for

Finally got my work schedule switched around so I can go to more team training sessions at EPC. Tonight was my first bench workout with the team, and it was pretty awesome. There was way more people there for benching then there is on Saturdays for deadlifting lol. There was 2 bench stations set up - 1 with guys just doing normal bench and 1 with chains, and since I showed up late and the chain bench station had less people in rotation I decided to hop in that group. Duffin noticed a few things about my form - 1) my feet setup is kind of inbetween 2 different styles, and 2) my wrists roll back too much. For the first thing we tried to widen my foot stance so I get more leg drive, but that ended up making my glutes cramp really bad so I reverted back to what I was doing prior. For the wrists he taught me how to use my wrist wraps a bit differently and really emphasized that I squeeze the bar tight throughout the movement which I've never really thought about too much.

For the accessories there was a few different groups doing things so I kinda started with 1 group and then eventually ended up doing my own thing by the end.

About an hour in Adrian Larson came in to bench, he is pretty incredible. There's something wrong with his legs (not quite sure what) so he uses zero leg drive and doesn't even have his feet on the ground when he presses, and yet I saw him work up to something like 585 on bench with a slingshot. Pretty fukin unreal.

During my post-lifting stuff I tried some of the stuff in this video out:

Dude is a pretty sick powerlifter. Got a lot of good ideas from the video. One thing I did tonight that I've never done before is put a baseball up against a wall and really jam it into my delts/lats/pecs. It hurt like hell but it felt great afterwards. Gonna try and keep doing that after upper body sessions.

Dinner last night: Ramen with BBQ pork loin, seaweed, egg, fishcake, and a side of kimchi. Only thing I was missing was green onions and bamboo shoots

Seems like you're really digging the lifting at EPC! Never had a chance to train with chains before but looks fuarkn awesome! plus how the weight gets distributed on the lift is something great for breaking through barriers

Those mobility stretching sessions will go a long way in helping gains/protecting gains, IMO

That is my type of food P0rn!
That looked like a really interesting session --- how did you like lifting with the chains compared with the normal benching? You are very strong with the paused bench anyway (ie strong from the chest) so do you feel that the chains will add much to your benching?
Dipping with the 60lb jacket is pretty cool, then adding the 40lbs for reps of 6 is beasting it!. I'm sure that and things like the floor pressing will blow your triceps and bench strength out of the water in a few months
That battle rope stuff is hard work as well
Great work Zack

Seems like you're really digging the lifting at EPC! Never had a chance to train with chains before but looks fuarkn awesome! plus how the weight gets distributed on the lift is something great for breaking through barriers

Those mobility stretching sessions will go a long way in helping gains/protecting gains, IMO

oh those CGBPs were looking a little light, dontcha think?

Definitely agree on the first 2 accounts. However, I don't know about "light" on the CGBPs, let's just say they weren't super heavy

Originally Posted by fittofattofit

That is my type of food P0rn!
That looked like a really interesting session --- how did you like lifting with the chains compared with the normal benching? You are very strong with the paused bench anyway (ie strong from the chest) so do you feel that the chains will add much to your benching?
Dipping with the 60lb jacket is pretty cool, then adding the 40lbs for reps of 6 is beasting it!. I'm sure that and things like the floor pressing will blow your triceps and bench strength out of the water in a few months
That battle rope stuff is hard work as well
Great work Zack

The first set with the chains really threw me off since I'd only done it once before. With just the bar and the 100lbs in chains on my first set I was super wobbly and it took me a little bit to figure out how to position the bar well. I got the hang of it pretty quick though. And I don't know if the chains will add a ton to my benching, but since that group had less people in the rotation I decided to jump in that group.

The battle rope was hard as hell. It's not like the thin one's you see at commercial gyms, this thing was a monster: huge, thick, and long (lol). And it was only 1 rope. You had to swing it like a mad man and jump up and down basically to keep the momentum going.

First time doing a squat team training day @ EPC. One group with some of the more advanced lifters was doing box squats, and they had a ton of people in rotation so I decided to do regular squats with the group of more novice-intermediate lifters. Unfortunately didn't get a whole lot of coaching today since none of the coaches was in my squat group.

Worked up to a heavy triple with some left in the tank. Never done 355 for more than a single, and the first time I hit 355 was 6 months ago. I probably could have grinded out 365 for a triple but considering I basically did max effort on deads this week I didn't wanna go all out.

For accessory work I didn't quite know what to do since there wasn't a coach in my group, and the rotation for the other group doing accessories was pretty big so I didn't really wanna jump in that. Lots of time spent thinking what the hell should I do next. Tried out some banded goblet squats as per recommendation by my buddy Jeff and they were pretty awesome. You feel it in your adductors a lot. I think next time I do them I'll try them with a heavier band. I see Duffin doing a ton of them, so they must be a solid exercise I wanted to do some split squats and some barbell glute bridges - 2 exercises my chiro told me to do - but couldn't find a good way/place to do them and just basically gave up. I'm kinda mad at myself about that.

Since I haven't gotten a ton of programming direction at EPC, I'm constantly trying to be creative and come up with what to do. Decided to try out a dynamic bench workout. I read through a lot of people's journals, particularly Dan G's trying to get ideas for what to do. Decided to give some speed work a shot, first time doing that since running PHAT in the summer of 2011. Reps felt fast and explosive, but by the 10th set the speed was dropping so I decided that was enough.

Credit to Dan G for inspiring me to do some DB lateral raises, time to get dem jacked fiberz nomsayin.

Deadlift session was exactly 12 hours later than when I left the gym after this workout.

Lat Pulldowns (don't know what the numbers one weight stack correspond to, I was doing "10" for every set)
4 sets of 8-10 reps

Standing Hammer Curls
17.5's x 20
20's x 20
20's x 16
20's x 15

Glute-Ham Raises
6
6
6
5

Hyperextensions
a few sets with chains around my neck

45 minutes stretching and foam rolling

Thoughts

Got chit for sleep last night. Went to bed around midnight, woke up at 5am, and couldn't fall back asleep. All I could think about was the training session ahead of me that morning, programming, and stuff related to powerlifting. Finally fell back asleep at 6:30, only to have to wake up 30 minutes later. This is like the 3rd time this has happened since joining EPC. Considering how excited I get in the middle of the night when I wake up, I guess that means I really like powerlifting lol.

Had a couple new members in this morning, so the deadlift rotation was like 10 people. The group was doing block pulls again. Since I'm pretty strong on my lockout and the rotation was so big I said fuk it and decided to do my own thing on the platform next to it. I knew I wanted to work on deficit pulls and I knew I wanted to get some volume in, and that chit would take way too long in the group. I thought when I joined EPC I would be getting more direction on programming, but it seems more like the coaches are there to observe and critique your lifts, and make some exercise suggestions, but not really write programming for you. This makes sense: there are way to many members for the 3-4 coaches to be able to spend that much individual attention on. I think I'm gonna continue on with 5 x 5 and 5 x 3 style programming and add in some elements of the conjugate method maybe.

Glutes were still hella sore from Wednesday's squat session, so my lower back did a ton of the pulling. Nothing hurt but I could tell the form wasn't exactly ideal lol. Got some good volume in though so I'm happy with that.

Since I haven't gotten a ton of programming direction at EPC, I'm constantly trying to be creative and come up with what to do. Decided to try out a dynamic bench workout. I read through a lot of people's journals, particularly Dan G's trying to get ideas for what to do. Decided to give some speed work a shot, first time doing that since running PHAT in the summer of 2011. Reps felt fast and explosive, but by the 10th set the speed was dropping so I decided that was enough.

Credit to Dan G for inspiring me to do some DB lateral raises, time to get dem jacked fiberz nomsayin.

Deadlift session was exactly 12 hours later than when I left the gym after this workout.

Feels good knowing someone is trying to get ideas from my training. srs. Thats motivation for me to continue working hard.

Overall the session looks good. Im a fan of DE benching for my own training. Its kind of a built in way for me to control volume and intensity on my second pressing day, ensuring I dont go HAM on some RE work, which I tend to do. If your elbows and tris can handle it, I tend to try to go heavier on my tricep work on my DE day. So after the FP you could throw in something like tates or a skull crusher variation. However, a lot of times after my pressing my elbows are screaming so Ill call an audible and do something very similar to what you did. So just play that day by day. GJDM and stick with DE work for a while.